4,000-year-old tablets found in Iraq reveal ancient red tape

A discovery in southern Iraq has given us a rare glimpse into the world of ancient bureaucracy. Researchers from the British Museum and Iraq have unearthed over 200 clay cuneiform tablets and 60 seals, offering a detailed record of the early Akkadian empire.

These 4,000-year-old tablets, uncovered at the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu (modern-day Tello), reveal everything from the mundane to the monumental: barley rations, livestock transactions, and even the death of a sheep at the empire’s fringes.

“These are the spreadsheets of empire, the very first material evidence of the very first empire in the world,” Sébastien Rey, the British Museum’s curator for ancient Mesopotamia and director of the Girsu Project, told The Observer. 

Lest we think that red tape was a çağdaş invention, Rey highlighted the empire’s penchant for bureaucratic procedure. “They note absolutely everything down… They are obsessed with bureaucracy,” he said.

The treasure trove of administrative records, dating back to the Akkadian period (2300-2150 BCE), provides the first concrete evidence of the Akkadian Empire under King Sargon – the world’s first known empire. Rey explained that the tablets were stored in a state archive building and document the inner workings of the empire in great detail. These are “the very first material evidence of how the empire actually worked,” he added.

As Rey explained, the finds also reveal that women played significant roles in this early empire. He noted that, while society was patrilineal, women held important offices, including high priestess roles – something unusual for the time.

“Women held important offices within the state. So we have high priestesses, for example, although it was a society very much led by men. But the role of the woman was at least higher than many other societies, and it’s undeniable based on the evidence that we have,” he told the Observer.

The tablets, part of the Girsu Project – a collaboration between the British Museum and Iraq’s State Board of Antiquities – will be housed at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad for further study. 

Find out more about the Girsu Project here.